Year One

Year Two

Year Three

Year One

Good progress was made in the first year of the project. The LISU team spent some time examining documentation supplied by Lancashire, to develop a picture of how the service operates and how information is collected, evaluated, applied and shared. The views of LCLIS staff, were collected notably through:-

A briefing with senior management, which took place in December 2002 with the County Library Management Team and representatives from Bibliographic Services, Administration and members of the Project Steering Group. Colleagues from Lancashire were presented with a series of questions, which were intended to gather more examples of how data is used 'on the ground' in Lancashire and to identify areas where more evaluation of information would be useful.

A successful programme of seminars and workshops
These were held in Spring 2003, for two groups - the County Library Operations Group, and branch staff from across the Divisions and library levels. Both the seminars and workshops helped to raise awareness of the importance of evidence gathering and sharing. The seminars also served as an information gathering exercise for LISU, in that specific examples of data, and methods of collection, analysis and dissemination were discussed. The workshops took a more 'hands-on' approach, involving a series of exercises to explore applications of data, statistical analysis techniques and the potential for evidence sharing.

An associated exercise, which asked participants to record examples of data they collected and used over a two-week period, following the seminar. This provided LISU with some very useful feedback and examples to follow-up in the workshops.

Findings from the first year of the project are detailed in a comprehensive report, which is available to download here:

Report Yr 1 (424KB)
Appendices (1.46MB)

Year Two

Various activities throughout the year demonstrated that the initiative was gaining momentum and becoming more embedded in LCLIS. The main activities were:-

Formation of Performance Circles. A key development in Year Two was the formation of two groups, each comprising about ten staff, from all levels of library service. Following an initial briefing session in September 2003, the Performance Circles played a central role in the establishment of the Performance Management Resource, by providing information, talking to colleagues and finding out about the statistical evidence used in the library and information service.

A newsletter testing exercise was undertaken to ensure that the project newsletter, the Lancashire Quest is reaching all staff, and to collect comments and suggestions about the content. The comments collected have been taken into consideration for forthcoming newsletters.

Follow-up questionnaires were sent to staff involved in the workshops in Year One, to assess whether the workshops had helped them use evidence in their day to day work.

Interviews with senior management were conducted in July 2003, to assess the management team's awareness of the EBM initiative.

Another workshop was held in March 2004, involving around 20 colleagues, primarily senior branch staff. This included examples from LCLIS staff of how they had used evidence to inform their work, and practical sessions about what data can be used for and how to set targets.

For more information about these activities, see the Lancashire Quest newsletters, and the Report for the End of Year Two, which can be downloaded below.

Report Yr 2 (701KB)

Year Three

The final year of the project built on the work undertaken in years one and two. Key to this year has been the development of a Performance Management Resource, to guide staff through evaluation in their daily work. A seminar and workshop were held in March 2005, to raise awareness of evidence based management, and to introduce the Performance Management Resource to colleagues in Lancashire.

The final project report not only looks at activities in Year 3, but also the changes the project has brought about in Lancashire, since it began in 2002.

Report Yr 3 (1MB)